Scientific publishing has been undergoing a rapid development in recent years, both in terms of increased numbers of journals and in terms of published contents. The knowledge and understanding of the scientific publishing process is advantageous to any scientist and engineer who will eventually be either an author or a reviewer. This practical course will provide students with an overview and hands-on experience on scientific publishing. In group work students will be assigned the roles of scientific paper authors, journal reviewers and journal editors and will follow the process of writing, peer-reviewing and editing of scientific work. The course will involve extensive homework assignments. The number of students will be limited and priority will be given to ACEEES affiliated students and doctor course students.
The students will develop skills of critical evaluation of scientific research in cross-disciplinary fields, presenting and defending their ideas and concepts, and reporting research results in a form accessible to general scientific audience. The students will learn the basic principles of writing scientific papers, evaluating papers from the perspectives of reviewers, and editing papers.
Scientific publishing, publishing history, peer-review process
✔ Specialist skills | ✔ Intercultural skills | ✔ Communication skills | Critical thinking skills | Practical and/or problem-solving skills |
Students will be divided into groups. In each group, one student will assume the role of an author and two to three students the roles of reviewers. As a homework assignment, the author will be asked to write a short paper (e.g., report on their recent experiments, etc.) introducing their work to a multidisciplinary audience. The paper will be passed over to the reviewers whose homework assignment will be to read the paper and write their comments. The author's paper together with the reviewers' comments will be presented during the class in the form of a 15-20 min presentation, and will be evaluated by the lecturer from the point of view of a journal editor.
Course schedule | Required learning | |
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Class 1 | Introduction and overview of the course; basics of scientific publishing and peer review process; the roles of authors, reviewers and editors; ethical guidelines of scientific publishing | Outline of scientific publishing |
Class 2 | Students make a presentation on the issue. The student serving as group author introduces the paper, and the reviewers express their own opinion on the paper. the editor summarizes, and makes recommendations. | Process of scientific publishing |
Class 3 | Students make a presentation on the issue. The student serving as group author introduces the paper, and the reviewers express their own opinion on the paper. the editor summarizes, and makes recommendations. | Process of scientific publishing |
Class 4 | Students make a presentation on the issue. The student serving as group author introduces the paper, and the reviewers express their own opinion on the paper. the editor summarizes, and makes recommendations. The lecturer reviews and gives an overall evaluation. | Process of scientific publishing |
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Materials are distributed in the first class.
Homework assignments, class presentation
None required
vacha.m.aa[at]m.titech.ac.jp
2425
Upon prior appointment by e-mail
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